


As the Shadows Rise

by live_laugh_read



Series: Goodbye to the Doctor [2]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 19:51:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2824088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/live_laugh_read/pseuds/live_laugh_read
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>River Song thinks about the differences between her Doctor and the one who stands before her now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As the Shadows Rise

River Song stands amongst the damp, musty books as the shadows rise, watching the Doctor vaulting over bookcases and sonicing everything in sight.

It has been so long,  _so long_ , since she ran with him. The last adventure for her before she came to the Library was the Fields of Trenzalore. After that, he took her to Darillium, to see the Singing Towers. The towers sang, and he cried. That night, she told him she had signed up with Strackman Lux's expedition to the Library.

He promised her he would come when she called. But the message left too early, and the Doctor she has received is so impossibly _young_. Two hundred years before her Doctor, if she has her timelines correct.

With her eyes on him, River watches the Doctor as he kneels before one of the shadows. Tonight, he is her only hope. Young as he is, she needs him to know what they face, otherwise they are lost. The last of the Time Lords must be the hero of the hour, because she can't be, and she feels so damn helpless.

The Doctor she has come from is so conceited, with his bowtie and love of hats. At the same time, he is a power all on his own, even as he steps back into the shadows. He has just lost his companion and now, in her knowledge that she may never return from the Library, River feels guilt for leaving him alone. 

This Doctor is always on his feet, and talks at a hundred miles per hour. His glasses are almost the same as her Doctor's, except for the square lenses that sit on his face, in front of brown eyes that are so young, yet so old. Even his sonic screwdriver is different to the screwdriver of the Doctor she knows. It's so out-dated - it doesn't even have red settings yet.

But one thing that has remained the same through the incarnations is that the Doctor has absolutely _no_ sense of fashion.

In a sudden movement, her husband shoots to his feet and swings around, flipping his torch end over end as he does so, and two words fall from his mouth. 

"Vashta Nerada!"

Those two words tell her there is nothing to do, except run.

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE NOTE: I wrote this in 2012, _before_ The Name of the Doctor revealed the true Fields of Trenzalore story, and I am aware that River in that story is a Data Ghost. Therefore, this story has been classified as Alternate Universe, because I will not change anything.


End file.
